Earlier today (Friday, April 23, 2021), USA Softball, the National Governing Body of Softball in the United States, announced the list of 25 finalists for the 2021 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year.
The USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award, which is considered the most prestigious honor in Division I women’s collegiate softball, recognizes the outstanding athletic achievement by Division I female players across the country.
Here is the list of the 25:
Previous recipients of the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award have been:
- Stacey Nuveman (UCLA, 2002)
- Cat Osterman (Texas, 2003, 2005 and 2006)
- Jessica Van der Linden (Florida State, 2004)
- Monica Abbott (Tennessee, 2007)
- Angela Tincher (Virginia Tech, 2008)
- Danielle Lawrie (Washington, 2009 and 2010)
- Ashley Hansen (Stanford, 2011)
- Keilani Ricketts (Oklahoma, 2012 and 2013)
- Lacey Waldrop (Florida State, 2014)
- Lauren Haeger (Florida, 2015)
- Sierra Romero (Michigan, 2016)
- Kelly Barnhill (Florida, 2017)
- Rachel Garcia (UCLA, 2018 and 2019)
A 2020 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award was not given out due to the COVID-19 pandemic and season cancellation.
The Finalists include three graduate students, 10 seniors, nine juniors, one sophomore and two freshmen representing 20 NCAA Division I universities and seven athletic conferences.
Among the universities, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, UCLA and Washington are represented by two student-athletes while Arizona, Clemson, Duke, Florida, Fresno State, Kentucky, LSU, Michigan, Northern Iowa, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, and Virginia Tech have one student-athlete on the list.
The list of 25 Finalists will be narrowed to 10 Finalists on May 5 before the Top 3 Finalists will be announced on May 19.
The 2021 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year will be revealed prior to the 2021 NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS), which is set to take place June 3-9 at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex.
In addition to bestowing the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award, USA Softball is now in its 19th season of presenting the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll, which is announced every Tuesday during the regular season.
